Audio: CASTLE OF FEAR (spoilers) is great but Nick Briggs blew it

CASTLE OF FEAR is a 5/5, 10/10 adventure comedy. It's the first "on't miss", great adventure from BIG FINISH for some time. It has a rousing climax, and some very funny humor. In some respects it reminded me of the 5th Doc's time because it has A-Nyssa grabbed , B-the death of a heroic but sometimes cowardly male sickkick, C-a scene inside an alien spaceship that the Doc tries to disarm or use (VISITATION among others), D- a cliffhanger at the end of the story (KINDA and others), and E-a returning villain race (SPOILERS!) in a truly shocking reveal at the end of a story, unexpected....

SPOILERS

Yes, the Rutans are back. If this story has any downfall it is Nick Briggs. For some silly reason, he decides to play the Rutans as Daleks and yeah, they sound JUST like the Daleks, which is off putting and stupid. In their one outing on TV, the Rutans speak in almost low tones, not yelling and raving and ranting like one of my posts! Nick Briggs (if it is him: the cd doesn't tell us but if it's not him I'll be shocked because his Daleks here, oppps, I mean his Rutans here sound just like angry Daleks). Face it, Nick blew it here. The Rutans are NOT the Daleks. On the other hand, the Rutan copies sound just like Ruben did in HORROR OF FANG ROCK so that's good. But again, the writer seems to have failed somehow in telling us if the Rutans are just disguised bodies as in HORROR or just clones or maybe I just wasn't paying attention. I was enjoying the other stuff too much.

Ahh, yes, the other stuff. A 10/10 for the sound effects. Finally, Big Finish is once more making great use of the sound effects as it did in 1999 (the year, not the show). This sets up the past quite nicely. Sarah Sutton is at her best doing comedy and relating to historical characters and settings...she manages to be less "wet" than her other audios and indeed her TV episodes. Davison's interview is boring again and he brings up the same nonsense. BTW Davison, give it up, ADRIC wanted to be there on the TARDIS so unless he's talking about Turlough, SHUT THE HELL UP! The comedy is just ...plain funny. Other than the movies HOLY GRAIL and JABBERWHOCKY or however you spell that, I've never been much of a MONTY PYTHON fan and as all the actors say in the boring interviews, this is just as much PYTHON as it is DW and almost somewhat BLACK ADDER, which I've never seen more than a few clips and their bloody boring DW satire with HOUSE in it. Hugh Laurie or was that the false CURSE OF FATAL DEATH 9th Doctor?

In any event, this audio IS very very VERY FUNNY and well worth the time. Davison is funny (his quips about the rack and other torture devices only work thanks to Davison), Sutton is funny and the guest cast (ALL of them esp Maude and Roland) are all much funnier. The action makes sense (most of the time) and although there is a muddled, rushed climax, it's not terrible. An audio that rises above the recent tripe. I also like that for once they got the the 5th Doctor spot on ("I would rather that you didn't!" and Davison for once doesn't sound like a smoker. Has he quit?